Days 10-19: Romantic Road and ITALY!

Note: The pictures are small to help with the load time of this page, but just click on them to enlarge them to their high resolution glory. Oh, and the normal tech news commentary will return after my vacation.

So the funniest thing happened a couple of days after my last post: the Internet went out in my cousin's neighborhood. About 40 houses were out of Internet and phone, and we were the only ones to complains. The Germans couldn't be bothered! That's just how laid back their lifestyle is. Anyhow, he didn't get the Internet back for another 6 days, so I couldn't post again before we left for Italy and Paris. Hence, I'm going to do two posts: those few days and all of Italy (Rome, Florence, Pisa), and then I'll write another post just for Paris because I had as many pictures from Paris as all 3 cities in Italy. I took over 844 pictures in the past 11 days! I think that's pretty nuts. I've taken over 1000 on this trip total, of course.

On Friday, we hit the Romantic Road and saw a number of cute towns. To start out though, we headed to Dachau for a sobering reminder of the holocaust at a memorial to the first concentration camp. I think that anyone who visits Europe should go to one of these because it's so important that we not forget this horrific incident, especially when there are crackpots claiming that it didn't happen. This was one of my favorite memorials that was out there:



The Romantic Road was beautiful, and since I've already posted pictures from small towns and will put up another one very soon below, I won't bog down this already beefy post. Here is a neat castle (Castle Hamburg) that we ran into though along the way:



The next day, we headed out to Triberg, which is also known as the home of the cuckoo clock. This was immediately apparent when we got out of the car:



The cuckoo clocks there really were quite amazing though. They're definitely proud of their hand-carved wood. I even picked up some hand-carved Christmas ornaments. Here's one of their really fancy (and quite expensive) clocks:



On the way back to Stuttgart, we drove through the Black Forest, which was really quite the sight to take in. It's called the Black Forest, in case you don't know, because the trees are so close together that it's pretty much black when you're inside of it at night because no light is allowed in. It was always cool seeing homes nestled in the valleys of the forest:



On Sunday, we were off to Rothenburg (ob der Tauber), which I believe is also on the Romantic Road. The city still has a wall around much of it, so we were able to get a pretty good panoramic view from one of the towers:



While we were there, we decided to try some Schneeballen ("snowballs"), which were kind of like ball-shaped donuts, but a little different still, and in many different varieties (including Amaretto Marzipan, yum!):



This was, by far, the funniest thing I saw though (unfortunately, the shop was closed so I couldn't poke around to see if they were actually selling this):



What's even more odd is that the shop was displaying mostly swords in its display windows. Anyway, the next morning we jumped on a plane for Rome!

In Rome, we stayed in a hotel that was really just a collection of apartments and it was walking distance from Vatican City. Fortunately, we even had a/c, though that's not common at all despite how hot Rome gets (although it was only in the 80s when we were there). We headed straight for the Vatican City once we unpacked to be treated to the night view of St. Peter's Basilica:



It really is a beautiful church and plaza, and it's amazing to think that it fills up to receive papal blessings and for liturgical holidays because it is really quite and enormous plaza. We actually went inside first thing the following morning and I took several pictures, although the lighting made it hard to get a good shot of anything. Here's just one example of how ornately decorated it was though:



Can anyone explain to me the Greek in the back there? I can't figure out why it would've been written in Greek, but I wasn't a Classics major. Anyhow, I took that picture from above the tomb of St. Peter himself! To see that tomb in person was something incredible to me just as a Christian. On our way out we saw the Pieta, one of Michalangelo's moving masterpieces sculpted at just 25 years-old (it was behind glass):



We spent the rest of the afternoon in the Vatican Museums! By the way, one tip we learned is that museum lines aren't that bad. Don't pay the extra money to make reservations if you can stand to wait an hour in line and don't do these stupid tour things. The tour guides claim that the line will take 2.5 hours but they can get you right in, which is true except for that the lines usually never take that long. We were in line like 2 blocks from the museum and we got in within an hour. I hate the tour groups because they clog up traffic through these museums and they're often not better than an audio guide because you can't go at your own pace until after the tour is done. Plus, they're not cheap. Anyhow, I was most excited to see the sculpture of Laocoon and his sons feeling the wrath of Poseidon (Neptune)!



I can still remember Professor Johnson at UT telling us the story of how he tried to warn the Trojans of the Trojan Horse and was killed in the process because Poseidon sided with the Greeks. Of course, it was also intensely exciting and rewarding to see the Sistine Chapel, but they didn't allow pictures of that. There's just so much to see in that fresco, but we kept seeing amazing frescos where ever we went, it seemed, because of how well-decorated these European churches are. Anyhow, they still weren't as good as the Sistine Chapel (several parts of the Sistine Chapel other than the actual famous chapel had frescos on the ceilings, by the way). Here's a picture to give you an idea of how well decorated some of the rooms leading up to the Sistine Chapel were:



The other supremely famous piece in the Vatican Museums was the Belvedere Apollo:



They're not sure who it actually is, but the torso work inspired many other pieces of art so it is rather important. I was stunned to finally see the School of Athens, which I keep seeing again and again as an example of how the understanding of perspective progressed in classical art:



I have to end my collage of Vatican pictures with the nifty spiral staircase, of course:



Tuesday was mostly dominated by the ancient center of Rome. We went up the Capitoline Hill to see the Campidoglio and were treated with a fantastic view of the Roman Forum:



The Forum of Augustus was under excavation (as were parts of the Roman Forum), but we could still see it from afar. Anyhow, I took many pictures here that I won't bore you with except for that of the house of the Vestal Virgins, who maintained the fire in the temple to Vesta (Hesta), goddess of fire, lest they be whipped and stayed chaste lest they be killed:



That's just one tidbit o the many pieces of history that you can see in these ruins. I had my little Eyewitness Italy book that I borrowed from my cousin and gave an excellent walkthrough map fo the Forum. Oh, and here's another tip: go to the Forum before Palatine Hill and the Colosseum because it has the shortest line but it provides a ticket for all three.

Our next stop, after lunch, was the Colosseum:



It may not seem to be in the picture, but it's quite colossal (that's probably not why it was named that though; it was probably named that because of a statue of Colossus). You can also see a side profile of the Arch of Constantine in that picture (celebrates Constantine's victory over Maxentius). Inside, you could see that they dug up the area below the main platform to see the service area and probably where they kept prisoners, as well:



Oh, I forgot to mention another tip: the water in the fountains all over Rome (and I believe other parts of Italy, as well) are drinkable! They look old because they are, but unless it says "aqua non potabile" they are safe to drink. Here's an example of one:



Europe does not have water fountains in general, not even at restrooms (some of which you have to pay for, by the way), so this was so awesome. Some of the water, I believe, actually comes from Roman aquaducts! Some have been replaced with pipes because of damage that Roman has sustained over time from invasions.

Anyhow, our next stop was Palatine Hill, which was even bigger than the Roman Forum! The ruins seemed to be more intact here than at the Forum though:



The Forum was more of the central town marketplace filled with basilicas and temples and stuff whereas Palatine Hill was for the elite. In fact, we even went into the House of Augustus! It's incredible to think that I walked in the same halls as Augustus Caesar and that I saw pieces of buildings that existed before Jesus was even born. I enjoyed the view greatly that we got as we climbed the hill of some of the ancient center:



That was not enough stuff to fill our day though ;) We proceeded on the subway, which was simple and had few stops (it was mainly intended for commuters; the bus system is also quite good), and headed for the Spanish Steps:



It's sad that our view of the magnificent church atop the steps was blocked by the restoration of the obelisk in front of it, but the view from the top was excellent (for the sake of not killing your Internet, I decided to not show these because I have plenty of scenic shots that I've been showing as it is). Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain, which is the biggest fountain and Rome and quite grander in person that this picture can possibly convey:



Besides being massive, the sculptures themselves are just impressive. Supposedly, there's a girl sculpted here who it may have been named after that showed thirsty Roman soldiers this source of pure water. It looks nice at night, but my night shot is a tad blurry and not as good as the one above. Also, the crowd in front of this fountain was huge and did not recede as the night went on! What I loved about the are around it though and the area around the Spanish Steps is that it was so modern-city-like in the midst of all this history that was so fun to just walk around in (despite the expensive boutiques near the Spanish Steps that most Italians can't possibly afford). If I had to live in any city outside the U.S., it'd probably be Rome. I just love classical history too much.

Our last day in Rome was mostly just seeing odds and ends, like the Pantheon:



It wasn't all that great on the inside (I was hoping to see a temple inside, not a church), but it wasn't bad. We saw a few churches afterwards in the area near there (and we also saw the Piazza Navona, though I didn't get any exceptional shots of it), and this was painted on this ceiling of a Jesuit church that we saw:



It was not uncommon to see grand frescos like this on ceilings of cupolas or the churches themselves, although most Catholics in America have probably not seen such grandeur which much be totally pedestrian to people here. Or maybe they still appreciate the awesomeness of this artwork; I couldn't really say.

We moved on to the Castle St. Angelo, which I liked because I had never been in a castle before and we saw some neat things, like the Pope's treasure room and a genuine catapult, but the view made it really nice (one of those views that's better in person than in a picture, so I didn't post any of those). The church looked kind of like a big ship to me on the outside, but the path to is was lined quite nicely with angelic statues:



The last thing we saw in Rome was the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which is one of the four papal basilicas of Rome. We didn't know this ahead of time, so we were surprised to find a cardinal saying a mass in one of the chapels! I didn't know this until the procession ending mass, so I missed out on the final blessing (for those of you who don't know, the hierarchy is priest -> bishop/archbishop -> cardinal -> pope). It was definitely one of my favorite churches in all of Europe (thus far, at least), but I'll just show you a picture of the dome in the gorgeous chapel the cardinal gave mass in (where I believe Pope Pius V's tomb is):



The Latin inscription at the top, from what I can understand, reads "Always Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ" and then just Pope Pius V (it was his chapel), though I'm not sure the word order (it could be "Mary, Mother of Christ, Always Virgin" I suppose).

On Friday, we were off to Florence, home of many great Italian artists and also Dante Alighieri, the famed writer of the Divine Comedy, which is considered the greatest piece of literature written in Italian and, I thought, in the world, but I can't find proof of that. Anyhow, one thing you can't miss is the Duomo, which is the 4th largest church in all of Europe. The characteristic dome is definitely gigantic:



Inside the church, there wasn't a whole lot to look at, though it did have a famous painting of Dante showing Purgatory, Hell, and Paradise. You can see the campanile off to the side in that picture and behind the church is the baptistry (not pictured), which had Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" doors (as it was named by Michelangelo). The real doors are in a nearby museum, but even the copy looked incredible:



The other cool sight in Florence was the Piazza della Signoria, which actually was adjacent to the Uffizi (the greatest art gallery in Italy, and one of the finest in the world). It has some really awesome original sculptures, including the moving, famous "Rape of the Sabine Woman" by Giambologna. Here is an angle you probably don't normally see of it:



The piazza was physically dominated by the Palazzo Vecchio:



Another cool statue that I saw there, but is not particularly famous, is one of Hercules killing the centaur in one his Twelve Labors. I just happened to really like the sculpture and the poignancy it displays:



I debated whether to post this next picture, but I just thought it was kind of funny. The buses there and in Rome (as well as the subway in Rome) often had TVs overhead to warn of pickpockets and display ads and such. One such screen shows its true colors: it was running Windows XP Embedded and encountered some serious runtime errors:



I figure that WorseThanFailure wouldn't post it, so I thought that it deserved a mention at least from me.

Saturday, we saw the Uffizi and the Accademia, which were truly incredible museums. I think I preferred the Accademia simply for David and the room of busts it had that just totally blew me away. It was a lot of female nudity, but it made me understand why people call that art and not just pornography. It takes seeing a lot of nude art to understand what's beautiful about it, and it's really not possible for me to put it in words because it's more than just saying that it's because the female form is beautiful. Anyway, it made me a lot more appreciative of sculptures, and the Uffizi had a lot of sculptures in the hallways and a ton of paintings (though they're expanding it by probably a solid 30 minutes of walking around). We couldn't take pictures in either museum so that's why I can't show you any. That night, we made a long trek to the Piazzale Michelangelo, across the Arno River, for possibly the most spectacular panoramic view of Florence available, and right at dusk, too:



It ended up producing one of my favorite pictures from the trip (though I know I'll get marked as a snob for enjoying this picture so much):



That's a bronze copy of Michelangelo's David (the original is in the Uffizi and another copy is in the Piazza della Signoria).

On Sunday, we made a short trip to Pisa, where we actually got lost for a bit, to mainly see the famed leaning tower there, which was meant to be a bell tower for Pisa's Duomo. As you can tell from this picture, it leans quite a bit:



It's larger than you may think from pictures you've seen, and it was built off and on over a period of a couple hundred years, the last portion of which is where the tilt happened just as a strange property of the ground it was sitting on. And yes, the tilt is actually hurting the building itself and they've been working hard to preserve it from these compressive forces. The town of Pisa itself isn't that bad either (though plenty of street peddlers try to take advantage of its tourism, of course) to look at:



We went back to Florence afterwards (only a 1 hour train ride away) to catch an overnight train for Paris. And I will continue with a post on our four days in Paris tomorrow (it's like 3AM here right now).

Day 8: The End of the Short Road Trip

Note: The pictures are small to help with the load time of this page, but just click on them to enlarge them to their high resolution glory. Oh, and the normal tech news commentary will return after my vacation.

We are back in Stuttgart at last! I'm anxious to show everyone the amazing things I've been seeing out here so I thought I'd real quickly try to post some highlights from the past 5 days, the first of two road trips we have during our vacation (the second one will be almost twice as long and cap off the vacation). We'll be doing some day trips over this weekend, and then we'll head to Rome on Monday (I believe we're doing Rome, Florence, Paris, and Versailles in 10 days).

We drove on Saturday, as I had said in my last post, to Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium. What is the first thing that any sane person does when they get to Belgium? Get a genuine Belgian waffle. We opted out of the ones with crazy toppings on them for the standard, chocolate doused ones. It was definitely the best waffle ever:



Anyway, driving through Brussels is a real pain in the ass and much of the city seemed kind of slum-ish to me. However, the market square and the surrounding area was really cool and we happened to be there during the Brussels Jazz Festival so we were treated to good music while walking around and trying Belgium's famous chocolate and chips (French fries), as well. We also saw their famous lace and the peeing statue (I didn't upload that picture because it's not that impressive). At night, the buildings in the town square were all lit up:



The next day, we headed for Ghent (also in Belgium) after our "continental" breakfast at the hotel. 3 star hotels are not always what you expect them to be, this one was definitely not that great and they played very strange music that sounded like it came from the 70s (and probably did) during breakfast. Anyhow, Ghent was a really cool place. At the center of town were some towering churches that overlooked a really cute canal:



We sat in for the end of mass at St. Bavo's Cathedral and got to meet the Bishop of Ghent! He spoke English (the native language here was Dutch, though it was French in Brussels) and remarked that we must be Mexicans since we said we were from Texas (he said this with a chuckle, but not sure if he was kidding? I do look Mexican, as does dad). What was really awesome about this Cathedral was that it housed the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, which is a truly awe-inspiring piece of art. Definitely worth seeing if you ever go to Belgium.

The next stop was Brugge (also in Belgium), but we stopped at a coastal city called Ostend (Oostende) on the way and had a nice stroll along the beach there:



People there strangely ate raw, dried fish as a snack. I think there was a boat race going on there that weekend, as well. After our short jaunt we proceeded to Brugge, which was a very charming little city. At first glance, the buildings were just incredible in the Markt (their main square):



It also had the narrow streets characteristic of these places in Belgium that were so fascinating to us:



Oh, and when strolling through these streets, where the shops were closed, my mom was wildly surprised by this sight (I wonder why):



We made it back to our "hotel" in Brussels that night and drove off to Waterloo the next day, which wasn't too far off. This is, indeed, the famous Waterloo where Napoleon was defeated for the last time. I think we all learned more about the battle than we ever cared to know, but all the artifacts we saw (like actual sabres and skulls and stuff) was really pretty neat. We climbed the top of Lion's Mound, a memorial to lives lost in the battle established where the Prince of Orange was wounded:



From there, you could see the battlefield, which has been preserved quite well:



I took a panoramic of it, but I can't stitch them together until I return to Houston. Anyhow, after taking in like 4 museums, a couple of short films, a 360 degree panoramic painting of the battlefield (3rd largest painting in the world), and walking up over 200 steps to the top of Lion's Mound, we proceeded to Koln (Cologne), Germany. This was more of a modern city than most places we had been to, but it was still pretty awesome and its skyline was dominated by the Dom (Cathedral):



That's just the night shot though, take a look at it in the daylight:



This is probably the largest church we've seen thus far (it takes several pictures to show all the sides of it, and the attention to detail was truly phenomenal), but being Romanesque in its style it wasn't quite as grand on the inside as on the outside as opposed to the other churches we had seen. It was mostly just ornate stained glass on the inside (though we saw this in several churches):



What was also incredible was that this cathedral's relic was a chest containing the bones of the Magi (the three wise men)! It was gold and beautiful on the outside, and obviously we couldn't see the inside but to be so close to something like that just sends chills up your spine:



After walking around a bit more (and arguing with my mom about having to pay to use the restrooms in Europe), we then drove through a couple of small towns and ended up stopping for dinner in Trier (in Germany). This ended up being a hidden jewel though as you can likely tell from this shot:



They had a really unique-looking church also (it looks like a castle, I think) called Trier Cathedral, which was built in a Gothic style (from reading a nearby placard) and was protected by its own walls and gate!



As if the outside wasn't interesting enough, check out what we saw when we snuck inside:



Unfortunately, they were closing and kicked us out, but I was glad that I managed to sneak in that picture! We managed to head to Wiesbaden afterwards to stay at a hotel there the night and then this morning we headed to Bingen to catch a boat that would take us down the Rhine River all the way to St. Goar. This was a common sight on the way:



The scenery was gorgeous, though the weather was hot, and featured many castles, quaint towns, churches, and vineyards. One of the stops that the boat we were on clearly took after Kramer from Seinfeld:



I took about 200 pictures so obviously there's a lot I'm leaving out (especially pictures of churches, inside and out, since the center of each town/city is a giant church), but it's really hard in any case to capture the beauty of these places. It's something you really have to see to believe and appreciate. It's been a fun, though exhausting, few days and I have no idea what the plan is for tomorrow yet. I'll definitely try to post again before Monday since then I'll be out of Internet access for 10 days. Bon soir!

Day 4: Leaving for Brussels

We're in Stuttgart, getting ready to leave for Brussels (Belgium) for a couple of days and then off to Cologne and somewhere else, so I thought I'd just make a post with the pictures I put up on Twitter real quick...

My first meal in Germany was Jagerschnitzel, which was schnitzel with some local kind of noodles in a mushroom cream sauce (very yummy).



It turns out that Sindelfingen (the part of Stuttgart my cousin lives in) is like the central hub for Mercedes-Benz's operations, so we went to the museum near downtown (on Wednesday) and it was pretty sweet (I didn't get a picture of the food, but it was excellent there as well: I had this local kind of stuffed ravioli, but obviously not called ravioli):



Yesterday, we took a day trip to Colmar (France) and on the way back just went through the Alsace wine country, driving through vineyards and quaint little towns. It was very gorgeous out there. It turns out that Colmar was home to the creator of the Statue of Liberty and Voltaire:



We also took a trip up the mountains to find a castle we never reached. Still, the view was nice:





That last one was just for my blog readers ;) It's almost 11:30 AM here so I better help get the car ready. We'll be back in Stuttgart on Wednesday, maybe I'll post more pictures then?

Goodbye UT, I Love You!

Sorry I haven't been posting in a while, but between being sick, commencement, preparing for Europe, and moving out (among other things), I've been pretty busy. I think I'm going to have to forgo the past few weeks of news because I didn't have the time today I thought I'd have to write 2 posts. We have to leave for the airport in less than 2 hours! We'll return from our trip on June 24, so until then this blog is on hiatus. I definitely won't be writing about technology until then, but I may try to do a couple of posts with highlights from the trip, if possible. I can only do posts from Stuttgart (where my cousin lives), which we'll be in at the beginning and end of our trip. I'll try to Twitter if at all possible also, so you might want to keep your eye on that right sidebar widget.

This is the post that I've been waiting for and dreading for a long time now: my farewell to college and, more importantly, the end of my life as a student dependent on my parents. It's really difficult to believe that it's all over so when people ask me how I feel about graduating, I kind of want to say that I'm shocked. It doesn't feel like I went through much but when I think back on it and consider the person I was and the things I knew before coming here I realize that it really was a monumental experience. I don't think that I could've hoped for a better college career at a better University. Sure, I could've gotten a 4.0 or the bad things that happened could've not happened, but a wise man once said that it's the challenging times in our lives that build character, not our successes. So if you're looking to go to UT, you'll easily find a glowing recommendation from me.

I feel like the most important thing that I learned in Austin was the power we all hold within ourselves that we don't even know about. There were several classes where I had bad grades and didn't think I'd make that A but I pulled through in the end. There were so many projects I wanted to give up on and I pushed forward. How did these things happen? I think I've been reaching for a goal that drove me amazingly far. People who do bad in school aren't necessarily stupid, but rather they lack ambitious. It's unfair to say that they're lazy because I think that we're all lazy deep down inside. I like being productive just as much as the next person, but I also like sleeping and watching TV. The reason that the former won out is because I still have this vision for my life that I'm going to accomplish something incredible. UT CS teaches you that anything truly is possible. If you can crank out a compiler in 3 months and write a file system from scratch and program image searching and survive a 3 hour marathon exam in Automata Theory and brave the cold in Taylor basement then you have even more untapped potential within you. The lesson isn't how to code, the lesson is how to learn to be a better you and how to persist against all odds. Still, I did learn a fair bit about computers and programming in the process ;) In a field as rapidly-changing as computer science, I feel like UT definitely gave us all the necessary tools to continue to learn and explore and discover and just be creative. It's amazing how much creativity it requires to acquire a CS degree (take Number Theory and Network Security if you don't believe me).

The next most important thing I learned was the value of strong interpersonal skills. If you're going through schools just blindly making your As and watching TV alone at home in your free time, then you're doing it wrong. I used to think that networking was something that business students did and making use of people you meet is shady. I was afraid to ever ask anyone for help in getting an interview for fear that I wouldn't have truly earned the position. To the contrary though, life is full of serendipitous meetings that you have to appreciate and (reasonably) exploit. It's a 2-way street, of course, but having a strong base of friends is so important not only for maintaining your sanity and having fun, but for advancing your communication skills and gaining contacts that could serve you well later on in life. After all, where would Steve Ballmer be if he didn't befriend Bill Gates? When it comes down to it, teamwork is something that permeates our life in every aspect. My degree is not the sole accomplishment of my hard work and whatever talent I may miraculously possess, but the collaboration of the support of my friends and family, the colleagues who provided me with advice and study groups, and so much more. Without teamwork, you can only get so far. I learned that, too. Whenever I did something collaboratively (not a test, mind you, but studying or programming or whatever) I got it done faster and did better on it most of the time. You have to collaborate with smart people, which I had the good fortune of meeting many at UT, but it's definitely pretty amazing when you do. I'll never forget the amazing harmony J Higs and I had in our pair programming assignments where we'd bounce ideas off of each other and before long we had disassembled this intimidating problem into something more palatable.

I'm so glad that I got as involved as I did at UT. I was an officer in Natural Sciences Council for 3 years and an operating officer in Association for Computing Machinery for about the same amount of time. I learned so much about being a good leader and interacting with people and management and so many other things. I highly recommend this to those of you just starting out your collegiate journey. Fuck the frats. There, I said it. Those parties blow, the girls who go to them are often shady, and the guys are often pigs. Not all of them are this way, by any means, but there's a certain point at which I just can't take the superficiality of it all. Don't be part of a system, become your own person. When you join student organizations you typically get the freedom to do that while expressing yourself in a way that furthers the cause of a large group of people. There are strictly social groups: I had a ton of fun in Texas Latin Dance and went to plenty of great parties that way. Also, these clubs were much cheaper and are marketable in an interview situation. I can easily say that I would not be as capable as I am today is leading, managing, communication, and dancing without the aid of these 3 organizations. There's so much out there at UT to explore, so why not get out there and get your hands dirty? College is so much more than the high grades: I can tell you from experience that all good grades will get you is a foot in the door. You still have to sell yourself, which is so much harder when all you have is good grades. Explore your hobbies, do more in your field past the classroom (engineers: build stuff, programmers: do open source, everyone: do research, and really establish what you love to do. At the end of college, it's a requirement that you have a general idea of what you'd like to do or else you're in for an even longer struggle (which does build character, but that's aside from the point here).

I shed many tears when I thought about leaving Austin, and I shed even more when I finally left it. What a fucking amazing place. I spent several years literally praying for the day to come sooner when I'd leave Houston and live my own life in Austin. I know that a part of my love for it stems from that, but it's so much more than that. Austin is a city that becomes this benevolent character in your life. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. It's like how the island in Lost is a character on the show. You have to expect the unexpected, indulge in the offbeat and strange, be endeared by the local/indie charm, and take in the beautiful sights that barrage you constantly. I know it doesn't have quite the backdrop of Seattle, but the hill country and the people and all the little things really add up. I take no pleasure in the act of leaving Austin, I will miss it dearly. Sure, a part of that is the fact that I have to leave some people I really love and care about, but some of them are leaving, too. I decided last October that I had to move on with my life and try something new lest I always be afraid to accept change. This move is the biggest change I've ever had to endure, but it has to happen whether it's now or later.

The memories that I take with me as I close this chapter of my life are priceless and there are a ton of them. I hope to never forget them. In this semester alone I shook Barack Obama's hand, saw one of my favorite hip hop artists live, went tubing on Lake Travis, saw one of my idols speak (Bill Gates), threw my most successful parties, tried my hand at actual research, performed a dance in front of a large group of people (I've wanted to do this for many years), and I made the motion to raise the roof as I walked across the stage at commencement. In the past four years there has been so much more: I went to my first music festival, I met my first love, I saw the Dalai Lama speak, I saw some of my favorite artists perform (Coldplay, Audioslave, Common, The Roots), I got an offer at one of the top technology companies in the nation (this was something I dreamed of every day until that moment), I had the happiest days of my life (my brother's wedding and the offer/my first date), I smoked my first cigar and my first hookah, I met my best friends, and so much more.

There's no question that I'm going to miss the people I have to leave behind the most. There's way too many people who have influenced me for me to get anywhere close to acknowledging them all, but I do want to take a shot at just a few...
To my parents: you taught me the meaning of strength and sacrifice, and I will always appreciate that. The financial support you gave me showed me that you really cared about me learning. Some parents think they teach their children a lesson by making them suffer through working and doing school at the same time, but I'm glad that you realize that I already understand this. It made a huge difference, trust me.
To BB: I still remember when I talked to you and Kory after a party at Metro and asked if you felt like something was missing from college, like you hadn't found your place yet. Ironically (or coincidentally, I can't figure out which to use here), you guys helped me find my place quite well. I could not have asked for better friends, and I will sorely miss our movie/game nights. You have to come visit me in Seattle.
To my love: there are no words I can put here to thank you for all you've taught me and shown me and helped me through. My appreciation for your being in my life is far larger than you can probably imagine. You will always be a part of me.
To my CS buddies: thanks for being good guy friends. There are a lot of guys who have bad guy friends and end up in bad stuff and feel ostracized and alienated. I always felt right at home with you guys, and we had a lot of fun together. I imagine that our journeys will collide many times in the future, so don't lose touch, please.
To my brother and sister-in-law: your support has been endless, and I always appreciated that. God only knows how much money you've spent on me! Shawn and I get on each other's nerves every once in a while, but such is to be expected from siblings. ;) I will sorely miss lounging about in your house and playing with the bubba.
I'm sure that this is not a goodbye to any of you since you're all required to visit me! Make no mistake about it: I love you all dearly. There are other people who have been close to me over the years and I appreciate you all, too, but I'm running out of time here.

I want to leave you guys with some pictures from the weekend. I would leave you with pictures from the past 4 years that I like best, but that would be far too difficult. I hope you all have a great 4 weeks, and I'll try to report back soon. I will miss everyone.

From Convocation a...

From Convocation a...

From Convocation a...

From University-Wi...

From University-Wi...

From University-Wi...

Harold and Kumar 2 + Iron Man = Holy Awesome

I know, this post is way overdue. I'm going to try my best to hit the high points on what I've missed over the past couple of weeks, including a couple of movies that I saw. Things have just been crazy with wrapping up the semester, plus I got sick (and now I'm sick again thanks to trips to the lake, though I had a lot of fun). I'm going to try a slightly new format where I put bold headings in front of what I talk about to make my posts easier to navigate.

Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay
Unlike most people, I was not introduced to John Cho by American Pie. Instead, a friend of mine was hyping up a little known movie that really hit it off at Sundance called Better Luck Tomorrow where he also played a jerk. I liked most of the actors in this movie (I was one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed this movie) but I definitely felt like he was the best because he played this antagonist who you had to hate and feel sorry for at the same time so well. Then Harold and Kumar came out and comedy suited him really well. I think that's a testament to how versatile he is as an actor, and he shines just as well in the sequel. Don't get me wrong, I love Kal Penn, I just didn't see The Namesake so I'm not sure how he does in a serious role (he could've been better on "24", which I miss dearly, by the way).

Ok, enough of the drawn-out introduction, let me give you the premise in a sentence in case you haven't seen any of the trailers. It picks up at the very end of the first one (which I recommend seeing first for the funny subtle references to it, but it's not necessary), and so they're trying to get to Amsterdam to find Harold's crush while she's away there for 10 days but Kumar lights a bong on the airplane there. As you can imagine, stupidity ensues and they get thrown into Guantanamo Bay's military prison for being terrorists. As you can tell from that introduction, this is definitely a stoner movie. That being said, it's still a lot more fun than most, if not all, stoner movies out there. You don't have to be high to enjoy the humor or keep up with the story, you just have to have a really forgiving sense of humor (i.e. suspended disbelief). It features a little more gutter humor than the first movie and some improvements in the production quality due to a larger budget, but it still largely feels the same as the first in terms of humor, writing, acting, directing, etc.

To put it plainly: you will not like this movie at all if you didn't like the original. If you haven't seen the original, I think you should see it first just to get a feel for it before you do check out this one. If you don't catch it in theaters, it's really not a big deal because the same friend you borrow the original from will likely buy this one the day it gets released on DVD, and the big screen doesn't add anything incredible to the movie. If you love Sotuhpark, then I venture that you should also definitely see this one. I give this movie a B+ and personally rate it as the same as the original rather than better or worse. It's hard for me to rate a comedy movie as an A unless it's like Stranger Than Fiction or Little Miss Sunshine. This movie is hilarious and a fun ride, but it has its fair share of gross, racist, inappropriate, awkward, and sometimes offensive moments. It's by no means for everyone. If you can loosen up though and not get offended by its pokes at racism using racism or its subtle jabs at male chauvinism by a demonstration, then I think you'll have a good time. I'm personally going to be picking this one up when it comes out on DVD because every time I see the first it gets funnier, and I can easily see the same happening with this one.

Iron Man
This movie completely caught me off guard and just amazed me on all levels. Let me preface the rest of this review with a couple of things though. I was never a fan of Iron Man at all. I thought he was kind of cool, but other than Batman I didn't really get into superheroes without actual special abilities. I was also skeptical about this movie because the trailer was great but it could've easily been doctored to make a bad movie with great visuals look great, and I wasn't sure about Robert Downey, Jr. because I hadn't seen him in a movie in a while. Plus, director Jon Favreau was also responsible for Batman Forever and Daredevil (which wasn't bad but was underwhelming).

Hence, I think what impressed me most about this movie is the fact that it could pull in people who could care less about Tony Stark or Iron Man and keep them clamoring for more. The basic premise (which is revealed in the trailer) is that billionaire CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark, is captured by terrorists and when forced to build them one of his own weapons he creates an armored suit so that he can bust out, and returns home to improve it. Then the rest of the movie ensues. While the movie does start out kind of slow after the initial raid to capture Stark (since it goes back in time to give a little more back story on Stark from just before he gets captured), I thought it was completely necessary much like the plot development early in Batman Begins to really establish who Bruce Wayne is. Also like Batman Begins, the movie somehow knows how to give you the perfect dosage of action. It's not so much that you're bored by it (e.g. Matrix Reloaded) and it's not so little that you feel that you've been misled into watching a drama. Unlike Batman though, Tony Stark is really the main attraction since he is Iron Man rather than Bruce Wayne transforming into Batman. The CG is all very nice, but, more importantly, the acting is consistently spot-on. This seriously is the part that Robert Downing, Jr was born to play: an alcoholic, ostentatious playboy who is secretly very talented. In fact, this movie made more in 3 days than any one of his other movies have made in their entire run in theaters. Terrence Howard is great as always, Gwnyth Paltrow does a nice loyal assistant, and I don't want to spoil information about other characters but they all do well. The directing is almost flawless, the cinematography never lets you down, and the writing feels tight.

To cut to the chase here: there's no reason to not see this movie. It's impressive not only as a superhero movie but as an actual movie. It's probably the best movie to be in theaters in quite a while (likely the best until The Dark Knight comes out in July), and it deserves big screen treatment. So please, hold close to your heart my A rating of this movie and run out and see it. When you do see it, be sure to stay after the credits for something special. They're going to try and converge this movie, Thor, The Incre, and Captain America into a master sequel.

Oh, and you need to see the new Dark Knight trailer. It's pretty incredible. It rolls before Iron Man.

Back Soon
I'm disappointed that I was unable to talk about all the great tech news from the past couple of weeks, but I'm sick and need my rest. I'll do my best to post again on Thursday or Friday after my finals are all done. Until then, here are a couple of pictures from today:

Coldplay is Back! =O

EDIT: I miscalculated, it will be available at 6:15 AM tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I thought it was 12:15 AM BST, not 12:15 PM. Sorry ;)

Maybe I'm just really behind, but I heard a while ago that Coldplay was having issues and was taking a break, so I assumed that the band was on the verge of breaking up and was very sad. I was shocked to receive this in my inbox from Coldplay.com:

We're very pleased to announce that Coldplay's new single, 'Violet Hill', will be available as a free download exclusively from Coldplay.com for one week starting tomorrow, Tuesday April 29th, at 12.15pm UK time. This is a full week ahead of the single's conventional paid-for digital release, on Tuesday May 6th.

Then, on Wednesday May 7th, there will be a free limited edition 7-inch vinyl of 'Violet Hill' on the cover of NME magazine, backed by the exclusive B-side, 'A Spell A Rebel Yell'.

That would be 6:15 PM CST, I believe, today (Monday)! I'm stoked! Check out the new album cover:



I saw Harold and Kumar: Escape from Amsterdam and would love to review it and do a post right now, but I have work to do and I'm sick, so I can't waste any more time than I already have. I'm going to try really hard to post on Tuesday. My score for the movie will probably end up being B+ (go see it if you liked the first, but just put aside high expectations of it being another comedy classic and realize it's another stoner comedy).

The Truth About Net Neutrality

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32

I don't quote the bible much here because this isn't that kind of blog, but I really like that quote. For some reason, every time I read it feels like the first time I've ever read it.

Getting to the point though, we set out in February to create a video about network neutrality. Why? For our grade in Contemporary Issues in CS, mainly, but any of my regular visitors probably see me posting about net neutrality quite a bit so would know how strongly I feel about it. The problem right now, in my opinion, is exposure. If legislators don't think their constituents care about the issue then it's too easy for lobbyists and telcos to fill their heads with whatever benefits the shareholders of these companies. The videos that are out there right now are often either misinformed (even Rocketboom
's take goes past the strict boundaries of what net neutrality means) or completely one-sided (whether for or against it). How likely are you to believe a biased video that only tells you one side of the story? It's like watching Zeitgeist and believing everything it tells you without reproach (for the record, going back to the gold standard is completely absurd and illogical).

So my video aims to present a clear and truthful definition of the issue, and then present the major arguments on both sides with an obvious lean towards net neutrality. We spent well over 50 hours putting it together (at least 20 hours in editing alone), so I hope that it entertains and educates you:


The Truth About Net Neutrality from Eptiger on Vimeo.

If you'd rather see it on YouTube, part 1 is here and part 2 is here. Apparently, I uploaded at a high enough quality for it to be viewable in "higher quality", so YouTube is not a bad option for viewing it. I encourage you to pass it along to friends if you enjoyed it and spread the word on this important issue. I did not distort anyone's interview in this video, nor did I distort the arguments against net neutrality. I really was trying to be as unbiased as possible in putting this together.

I'll try to make a real post this weekend, but I have to get a lot of work done between now and then (code generator, prepare for management exam, final music composition, 3000 words for our net neutrality paper, research stuff). Just one week left!

TLD Spring Show

For my last semester in Texas Latin Dance I actually participated in a dance company! This means that you create/learn a choreography (though all I personally contributed to the dance I was in was the song selection) and then perform it at TLD's show at the end of that semester as well as events around campus and possibly around Austin. Since I'm graduating I won't get to perform this one again with the group, but it was a lot of fun learning it and something that I always wanted to do (dance on stage). Next hurdle: perform classical guitar on stage. I have performed it in front of medium sized audiences, but not in a recital/concert setting.

Anyway, one of the officers filmed the show on a half-way decent camera so I took it into the DMS lab in the business school for some light editing and encodings that took forever (for the Web and for the DVD). Here's the compressed version of the entire show, for the Web:


Texas Latin Dance 2008 Spring Show from Eptiger on Vimeo.

I think it was one of our best, if not the best, show we've had in the 2 years I've been in TLD! Though my personal favorites were probably Texas Revue, Bachata, and Mezcla.

If you turn to 26:05 you can see the dance I'm in, or you can just watch the even lower quality YouTube cut. I'm the last guy on the front row in the formation.

I'll return on Thursday with the public release of my short film "The Truth About Net Neutrality". Then, I hope to write a full blog post this weekend with a recap of this week's news. I've already been accumulating a pretty decent amount of news so there will be much to talk about.

Yahoo/Microsoft and Net Neutrality Dominate the News

So I know I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks, but I've been busy. After honors weekend was over I had to bust my ass to work on my parser and then spent the rest of the recovering in my other classes. Since my last post, the limelight has fallen clearly on two issues from what I've been reading: Microsoft's fight to acquire Yahoo and a surge of articles related to net neutrality. Speaking of which, my video "The Truth About Net Neutrality" is ready and will be made public after it is shown in class. So expect a post about this on Tuesday or on Thursday (more likely Thursday). I think that everyone will enjoy it and learn a lot from it. I have a couple of real quick personal things though. I'm performing in a dance tomorrow night, so you should come see it if you're in Austin (Union Ballroom, 8:30 PM). I caved and decided to join Twitter, we'll see how that goes (it's also somewhere on the right side here). Lastly, I got a shiny new laptop and a new mouse. I hate to say it: but HP's mantra of "the computer is personal again" really does apply here for me. It's exactly what I wanted: it's super fast, I can multi-task to an extreme without slowdowns, it's precisely the media powerhouse I want for high-definition video and my music and pictures, it has a built in webcam and bluetooth, and it even has S-video output. Very impressive, HP. Plus, this screen clobbers my old 19" CRT even though it's only 15.4" (it's just a little shorter than the 19"). The mouse is just really precise and the buttons on it are great. Wanna see?





Let's start off with Yahoo's response to Microsoft's ultimatum: give us more money. They claim that they'd be more amicable to the takeover if the offer was larger, which at this point may actually be true because they have to be starting to become afraid of Microsoft taking action by way of a proxy fight. I love the open letter they sent because it was like a verbal bitchslap aimed at Steve Ballmer. Were they being jerks in their diction? I don't think so, because I can see Ballmer being a jerk himself in trying to push this whole thing forward. The last I heard since that letter was sent is that they met earlier this week to open up negotiations again. We have no idea what's happening here behind closed doors (maybe in a year it'll be a made-for-TV movie), but I think we're all hoping that it won't end in a proxy fight. Oh, and a proxy fight does not guarantee anything for Microsoft since stockholders have to be willing to sell their shares so that's a big reason why Ballmer is going to want to negotiate more here. What we do know is that Microsoft hired a lobbyist group to start greasing the wheels in terms of making sure that an acquisition of Microsoft would not be questioned by the suits in the other Washington.

As if that wasn't already enough drama for Redmond (which could be the title of yet another reality show for MTV, I'm sure), analysts are painting a bleak picture for Microsoft unless they rethink how they deal with Windows. I have to say that I agree with them, and it sounds like Microsoft may already be on that path. Last time I blogged, I believe I cited an article saying that Windows looks like it'll become more modular, and so I think the Windows 7 team wants it to be easier to upgrade. Of course, if someone with the hardware to run Vista can't run Windows 7, then they're really hosed because that's unacceptable. Increasing virtualization seems interesting, but I don't personally have much experience in how virtualization works. I wonder if it's at all feasible to remedy their problem of a huge legacy codebase with a virtual machine to run programs that require Vista/XP to run? That way they could start fresh. They're probably not going to do this, it's just something I'm pondering here. Fortunately, Microsoft is actually getting some praise in its improvements to Live Maps, which seem pretty sweet. Even though I regularly use Google Maps, I can appreciate how nice the Bird's Eye viewing angle can be, and these 3-D rendered builds right in your browser are pretty neat. You can see my old place in Seattle here (I lived in the triangular building) and this is where I worked.

Facebook has launched its in-browser chat for select networks and it seems to be pretty neat and an excellent idea. I think that enough people stay logged into Facebook for an extended period time to make this actually useful. It looks to be pretty well integrated with your news feed and easy to deal with as an addition to your normal Facebook browsing experience. What does this mean for traditional IM clients? Are they to go the way of the dodo with the rise of Google Chat and Meebo and now this Facebook chat? Probably not. I think that enterprise users will still value their functionality in helping teams communicate, but we'll see what happens.

I mentioned last time that it's ridiculous that Google would take on Amazon Web Services (AWS), but I guess that their Google Apps Engine heads toward that goal. I have to admit that this is really cool, but it's kind of different from anything AWS does, which is good. It's an entire platform rooted in Python and hosted by Google for launching your own web applications. So it's less flexible but more tightly integrated than the kind of stuff you'd be buying from AWS. I think it's interesting for a niche market, but appeals to a slightly different market than AWS, one that I believe is probably smaller but not negligible. If you want Google Apps Engine, then you're probably a student or a smal player, whereas companies that want to use AWS have a clearer direction and a better understanding of what they need and how they plan to use it. It's definitely interesting and I think it's a great concept. It has its limitations and I don't know if it'll ever grow to be really big (most platforms take a while to catch on anyhow), but it's definitely not a bad idea. I stand by saying that Google can't directly compete with AWS in its segment of the market, which is further confirmed by Jeff Bezos's remarks at Startup School as intimated by my friend, Juan, that include something like this.

Ok, now for the slew of net neutrality articles. Virgin Media's CEO has blasted net neutrality as being bullshit and has already started establishing contracts to deliver the content of certain providers faster than others. The audacity of people like this truly amaze me. I don't understand how people can desire more money at the expense of society and the very definition of what the Internet has always been. Of course, they then turn around and say that we don't really need faster Internet access. Why is an enraged American public not putting he pieces together? They want to charge more money to certain providers to make more money without actually giving you a better Internet experience. They're too lazy to rebuild their networks and wire this country with fiber so they instead go for cheap solutions that don't really make anything better.

Comcast re-did their hearing at Stanford last week for throttling people using BitTorrent since last time they paid people to fill seats so that real people couldn't sit in and be a part of it, and they really want to de-prioritize heavy Internet users. This is not a violation of net neutrality, this is a violation of what most of their clients signed in their terms of service and is ridiculous. Net neutrality specifically deals with neutrality on the content provider side, it's a totally different issue for the consumer side. Providers like Comcast have long forgotten what it means to care about their customers and have turned to self-serving "bills of rights" and slinging mud at any threat to keeping the Internet a communications medium that is driven by and freely available to the people at large. I hope all of you will write to your congressmen and help be a part of the solution.

I'm running late here so let me cover just a few things real quick. Joel Spolsky wrote another article for Inc.com about the strategy of "Fire and Motion" where you stun your opponents with something big (the "fire") and then move forward so that you're always one step ahead of them. It's a fun read and a great strategy for all you budding entrepreneurs. PS3 users may soon see television and movie content come straight to their PS3s via the Playstation Network. I'm not sure if they'd have ad-supported TV like Hulu or pay-per-view like iTunes/Unbox, but hopefully it'll help the PS3 stand up against its loses to the Xbox 360 and Wii in this generation's console war. Clearly, Sony wants the PS3 to be your one-stop entertainment center. Lastly, if you're a Mac user who doesn't even consider security, you need to read this. I'm currently playing with vulnerabilities in my research that affect Macs, so believe me when I tell you to be careful out there. The Internet is a dangerous place.

Like I said, by Thursday I'll be making another post with my net neutrality documentary, so I hope you'll come visit again very soon!

The Roots Rock UT

**UPDATE** The Daily Texan actually has a great article reviewing the concert as well that acts as a nice supplement to what I say below.

NOTE: below the embedded video, you'll see your dosage of tech news to cover the past 2 weeks.

I have to say that Austin has had a pretty fortunate Spring. The weather is still pretty nice outside, despite being April, Barack Obama has come to speak here at least 3 times, we hosted the latest Clinton-Obama debate, Bill Gates visited us, Bill and Hillary Clinton both spoke here, we're home to the current Turing Award winner, and The Roots blasted their incredible fusion of rock and hip hop from Main Mall throughout the lower half of campus.



They were the very definition of indie Austin rock, in my opinion: weird, intense, but always fun. I was disappointed that they didn't acknowledge The Roots at all, but I forgive them. If you looked close enough, you could spot Captain Kirk, Owen Biddle, and I think Tuba Gooding, Jr. Feel free to comment if you can spot more of them (it's like "Where's Waldo"):



I tried to keep track of the songs they played, so here's the best set list I could come up with, in roughly the order they were played:

Star
Unknown song from Game Theory (I think)
Quills
Step Into the Realm
Act Too (Love of My Life)
1-minute covers: In a Gadda Da Vida (Iron Butterfly), Jump On It (Sugarhill Gang), Roc Boys (Jay-Z), Get By (Talib Kweli), Just a Friend (Biz Markie), a Wu-Tang song I didn't know, Who Am I (Snoop Dogg), This is Why I'm Hot (Mims), Snap Yo Fingers (Lil Jon and Sean Paul), Sexy Back (Justin Timberlake), Push It (Salt N Peppa)
Extended cover: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
I Will Not Apologize (off of Rising Down)
You Got Me
Here I Come
cover of Jungle Boogie (Kool & The Gang)
Don't Feel Right
The Next Movement
Web
Encore: The Seed and some song I didn't know (it sounded like the hook was "Men at Work", it was not Thought @ Work)



And again, that doesn't even cover all the songs they actually played, it's just the ones I knew. It made for a great set that covered over 2 hours. They came on stage one-by-one starting off with a song I didn't know, but as always The Roots crew started building up the crowd's energy until the crowd got wild and excited after the Masters of War cover. Speaking of which, you can see a video of it on YouTube from another concert. So picture that but with an insane guitar solo and a longer drum solo. It was seriously worth waiting 2 hours just to see that cover: it was absolutely incredible. The buildup in the show's energy was definitely noticeable though as Black Thought periodically introduced each member of the band giving them a short solo, especially as they went through that long slew of covers that the crowd went crazy over. I don't even like Jungle Boogie and I thought it was amazing when they played it.

What was interesting is that even though The Roots and Common are both hip hop, and have both blazed the stage that is Main Mall, there's something fundamentally different in their music that really fascinates. Common is more reflective, soulful, bare bones hip hop whereas The Roots is this rock-driven hip hop experience that revitalizes ever song they play as well as any covers they play. I had seen them live before back after the release of Phrenology, and so some of the band members have changed since then, but the show stayed true to being really high quality. Hell, they even put up these poles where the flag poles are that did something crazy with the sound echoing at some points. I've never seen so many white people go so nuts over 6 black dudes (+ a white guy) taking a stage; I thought it was interesting. I had no idea how cross-cultural The Roots' pull was. It's not hard to see why though when they put together a live show that you'd think was choreographed to the second with perfect harmonies but remixes of songs that most people there had never heard before. Anyhow, the concert was so mind-blowing that I pre-ordered Rising Down so I can give you guys the full review when I get that at the end of the month. In the meantime, here's a video that I took at the concert of the guys dancing on stage, which was started by F Knuckles:


The Roots Dance on Stage from Eptiger on Vimeo.

Ok, so it's time for some tech news! Amazingly, they flow pretty well into each other, so I'll start on the musical track since we started out talking about The Roots. PC World recently updated its list of top 10 Flash-based mp3 players, and I think the order is debatable but from my experience of shopping for one I'd agree that those are pretty much the top 10 out there right now except for the Cowon D2. My lesser known Clix2 (see yesterday's post) made the #5 spot just below the iPod Touch but above SanDisk or the Zune.

Where do you shop to load up these fine mp3 players though? USA Today had a refreshing article pointing out that Amazon's mp3 download service is now number 2 in digital music sales right behind iTunes. They're also tied for the number 4 spot in top U.S. music retailers with Target behind Best Buy, Wal-mart, and iTunes, which is number 1 now (on both charts). I'd say that given that Amazon MP3 was just a whisper a year ago, it's incredible that it has grown to be so popular and I'm excited to see if its greater selection of DRM-free music than iTunes will allow it to overtake Apple's FairPlay-controlled service. I personally have grown weary of iTunes and have switched to MediaMonkey for organizing my music and Amazon for digital downloads because it's just better overall.

(Note: I have no non-public knowledge of the AWS group,=; I did not work in that group.) Amazon also garnered a bit of negative press that I'm almost afraid to link to because I think it's kind of ridiculous. Basically, GigaOM put up a commentary on a thought from Dave Winer that gained popularity (probably more than the Winer original did). No doubt that both guys are smart and know what they're talking about in general, but I don't think there are enough companies that would want EC2 and S3 and such for free like this. Consumers are cheap and love free stuff, but enterprise-level software is all about support. So there's two ways Google could go about this: supporting it with ads or just hoping that one of the companies they back strike it big and Google can acquire them. For the former, I can't imagine that there are a lot of companies who would want to be forced to have big parts of their infrastructure supported by advertising. For the latter, I don't see how the fruits of this would be good enough to warrant providing these services. It's not like the AWS prices are insane anyway. I'm going to be bold enough to say that Google would be stupid to try to compete with AWS with a free model. AWS does pretty well as it is, and Google's style and past success are based in investing in growing markets without a clear leader.

Of course, a well-established leader is no obstacle to Microsoft who took on Sony in the console wars for the past couple of generations and is still trying to buy Yahoo in its war with Google. They've become so impatient that they're giving Yahoo 3 weeks to surrender before they take the fight directly to the stockholders. This could get real messy real fast. As I've mentioned before, Microsoft really does not want a proxy fight here because Yahoo's talent base is very important to them and a proxy fights typically result in casualties and lowered employee morale, but Ballmer has made it abundantly clear several times before that they will stop at nothing to takeover Yahoo, so I'm still appalled that Yahoo is still fighting this so irresponsibly. My opinion is that they told Microsoft they wanted more money because they wanted to stall for time from their shareholders because they knew that Microsoft wouldn't pay up. Either that, or they're delusional (which I also mentioned before).

I have a friend working on the Windows 7 team so I'm always excited to get news on that front because he's a smart guy and I think that he'll help guide Windows back on the right path. There's already rumors that Windows 7 will be modular, meaning that it'll come out in pieces so that it can be developed monolithically while providing the flexibility of a highly customizable OS (this is a similar idea to people who use Linux so that they can tinker with it). Also, Bill Gates let slip that Windows 7 will be out next year, but he didn't say much other than that. It's likely a beta that will be ready late next year since the release timeline for 2010 hasn't changed, but I hope that they are trying to pick up the pieces of Windows Vista and build something truer to what people really want.

Alas, I have one more piece of news from Redmond: the Microsoft Surface will be in AT&T stores in a few select cities to show off cell phone models by just placing them on the device to help sell the phones. It's an interesting application for the product, though I'm sure quite expensive. I wonder if AT&T bought them outright or if they're on loan? We have no idea whether it'll only work on the demo models or if your own phone could be placed on the Surface to be played around with, but it's launching April 17 so we'll know soon enough. Despite my initial skepticism, I think that the Surface could be really cool in retail stores and bars and restaurants.

The CEO of the Mozilla Foundation is leading the herds of people who are disgruntled that the Apple Software Update application, which PC users typically use to get updates to iTunes but Apple users use for other applications, automatically puts Safari on the list of updates it will provide to you and check the box by default so that if you just click "Install" whenever it bugs you about upgrading you'll have one more browser that you may not want (I certainly wouldn't want it). While I think it shouldn't be checked by default, I think that John Lilly is getting too worked about it. People shouldn't be clicking on things they haven't read or don't understand, anyway, because it could be a virus. That's why people should use ZoneAlarm and SpyBot. I personally think that anything that auto-updates is evil and should always ask you first, but nagging you can also be problematic. Still, it's the lesser of two evils, and so at least Safari doesn't actually install itself without asking you. Of course, what Lilly should keep in mind that if Safari is worse than Firefox (which it is) then he has nothing to worry about. The only helpful feature I ever found in it was the Activity window, which is like Down Them All but not as good. Oh, and Firefox 3 Beta 5 is out for all you hardcore nerds and developers out there.

Azureus, creators of the famed torrent application of the same name, have released a plug-in that will allow you to determine if your ISP is throttling your connection for using torrents. It may sound useless because you'd know if you were being throttled, but it will then send that information to Azureus to help compile a list of such terrible ISPs and I presume help your case in suing them.

Now, I have several high points I'd like to hit real quick because this post is taking way too long and I have other things to attend to. GigaOM put up something more enlightening than what I mentioned above: a guide to what makes a good mobile application great. Having dealt with horrible ones, I can attest to this list's validity. The New York Times had an excellent editorial about how Hillary Clinton is dragging along this battle because she feels like she politically deserves the nomination and will drag the party through the mud to get it. Clinton supporters: don't fight me here, there are field reporters attesting to shady tactics at conventions here in Texas alone. I'd vote for her if Obama loses, but I don't think it will come to that and she needs to start to realize that before we lose people to McCain and the arguably more decisive Republican Party. The SciFi channel put up a really neat recap of the first 3 seasons of Battlestar Galatica for those who want to get into the show but haven't been keeping up. It makes me want to go out and rent these first seasons, but unfortunately it's down momentarily. I'm sure it'll be back soon (it's called 'What the Frak is Going On?'). Lastly, in my hunt for Seattle apartment I came across HousingMaps, a Craigslist/Google Maps mashup that will map out housing ads in various big cities. I love it and am using it constantly so I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new place.

Hopefully I'll have another post up early next week, but until then I have much work ahead of me this week so wish me luck!